


phenomenon

by kyoufushi81



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: A Week of Kagehina, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hospital, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 21:51:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4154292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyoufushi81/pseuds/kyoufushi81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He understands two things: that his mother is crying, and that the doctor is wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	phenomenon

**Author's Note:**

> FIRST POST IN MONTHS! Geez, it's been so long. I've kinda been going through a writer's block, but this just sorta wrote itself in two hours. On the not-so-bright side, however, I've got a test soon that I haven't studied for, but. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

                “I’m sorry, ma’am, but it appears your son will not be able to survive. We expect him to be stillborn.”

                When Hinata Shouyou, floating in the warm comfort of his mother’s womb, first hears these words, he does not understand them.

He _does_ understand, however, two things: that his mother is crying, and that the doctor is wrong.

#

                “Ready, Hinata-kun?”

                Shouyou puts on his brightest smile and nods, itching to scramble out of his wheelchair and start walking. The nurse grins back and holds out her hand to support him, and he thinks that _yes_ , she’s finally forgotten about-

                “Did you do your warm-ups yet?”

_Never mind._

                He fidgets with the hem of his gown, knowing that either way, she’ll make him do them. As she sits him back down, he complies reluctantly and follows through with the basic upper body exercises that always seem to last forever.

                Using the bars is always his favourite part of therapy; when he gets to stand up and walk on his own two legs, even as they wobble and cramp and burn. And he hates stretching afterwards, not because it hurts, but because the ache he gets the next morning is nothing but a reminder of how much stronger he’s getting.

#

                 Sometimes, his mother takes him outside to the courtyard, where he sits and watches his younger sister toddle and fall, toddle and fall, toddle and fall. She doesn’t have full control of her legs yet, but she’s getting there.

                 “It’ll only be another half year,” Shouyou’s mother surmises, “before she’s finally up on her feet. I don’t know what I’ll do then; she’s already got too much energy.”

                 “C’mere, Natsu,” he prods, and she stumbles towards him, instinctively crawling into his arms when he holds them out. “When you start walking, don’t wait for nii-san, okay? I promise that when my legs are big and strong, I’ll catch up before you know it.” The sound of wailing distracts him from his mother’s sniffling, and he turns to see the blue and red flash of an ambulance.

                 “Don’t cry, Mama. I made a promise, didn’t I?” He loops a pinky around his mother’s, pressing their thumbs together. “Pinky-swear.”

#

                There is a new patient in the pediatric ward.

                Of course, there are always new patients, but Shouyou never notices them; he’s always either cooped up in his room, or focused on therapy. He’s not exactly an old-timer, either, having only been admitted a month ago after his surgery, but he knows everyone.

                And the tall, dark, scary-looking guy is definitely a stranger. He walks around like a ghost in the hallways, sometimes sitting down and bouncing a ball on his fingertips, and never speaks to any of the kids.

                “He’s probably a huge jerk,” giggles Yamaguchi. “They always are, aren’t they? The quiet ones.”

                “Tsukishima’s quiet,” Shouyou points out. 

                “Don’t say mean things about Tsukki!”

                “Then don’t say mean things about- uh, whoever that is. For all we know, he could be a really nice guy.”

                “Are you guys talking about mystery boy?” Nishinoya appears next to them, holding his lunch tray. “I hear he got transferred from another hospital,” he says when they nod, “because he was terrorizing the other kids.”

                “No way!”

                Shouyou’s “Yeah!” is cut off by the sounds of stomping from behind him, and he turns around to find the new boy towering over him menacingly.

                “What were you saying?” he growls, and Shouyou gulps, too terrified to look to his friends for reassurance.

                “N-nothing!” he squeaks, and the boy glares at him for a moment before whipping around and walking away, satisfied. Shouyou breathes a sigh of relief and sags in his wheelchair, and looks back to Yamaguchi, who is trembling, and Nishinoya, who is-

                “Why are you _smiling_ , Nishinoya-senpai?”

                “Because,” he replies, wearing a devilish smirk, “I know his name now.”

#

                “Kageyama Tobio!” Shouyou cringes internally; his words have come out a little harsher than intended, but it’s too late to turn back now, considering that the boy in question has already whipped around, practiced scowl etched into his expression.

                “What do you want?”

                He gulps. “Want to eat with us?”

                “Why’d I want to eat with you, dumbass?”

                “I don’t know- maybe ‘cause you stare at us creepily from that table every day, and Yamaguchi’s getting kind of freaked out.”

                Kageyama flushes, mouth tightening into a trembling line, and runs away.

#

                Kageyama never comes on weekdays. Shouyou assumes it’s because whatever he has isn’t serious enough to bind him to the hospital, like with Shouyou himself. But therapy will soon be over, his nurse tells him, if he continues this sort of work, and Kageyama will still have to come on weekends, so.

                Sometimes, Shouyou sees Kageyama outside, playing with a volleyball. He watches the sport sometimes, when there really is nothing to do; it’s not ideal, but volleyball seems okay, too. Of course, he knows that even after therapy, his legs will be too weak for him to play any sort of sport at a school level – much less professionally – but there’s nothing wrong with watching.

                “And who knows?” he blusters, watching Kageyama’s glare grow darker and darker. “Maybe I _will_ become a professional volleyball player. Just watch me!”

                Kageyama’s grip on the ball tightens- his entire body seems to tense up, before he releases with an exasperated sigh and tromps to Shouyou’s side.

                “This is how you do a receive, okay?” He drops the ball and holds his arms out, waiting for Shouyou to follow. “Don’t ball your fingers up, or else you’re going to break them. Now, the ball is supposed to hit here, so that it goes straight up. Then, you move out of the way so the setter – that’s me – can toss it to the spiker. Got it?”

                Shouyou nods vigorously.

                “Alright. So, I’m just going to throw this to you, okay? If you receive it properly, it should fall into your lap.”

                The ball does not, in fact, fall into his lap; rather, it hits his bicep, then bounces to meet his face.

                “Dumbass! You suck!”

                “Again!” he calls, and although Kageyama’s grumbling now, he obliges.

#

                Kageyama starts walking to Shouyou’s room by himself to bring him outside.

                “It’s too much of a hassle to wait,” he explains when Shouyou asks him, “and you can’t do shit by yourself, so I figured I’d come and get you.”

                “Hey! Language, Baka-geyama.”

                “I’m ten, idiot. I can say what I want.”

                “You’re ten? Then I’m your senpai!”

                Kageyama starts, then sinks into a glare. “You don’t even go to school, dumbass. How can you be my senpai?”

                “Because I _do_ technicallygo to school, and I’m eleven.”

                He is met with a scoff, and Kageyama says, “How can you go to school if you never leave the hospital?” A moment of silence ensues as Kageyama realize the depth of what he has just said. He scowls, fidgeting with his fingers.

“My classmates bring me my schoolwork, but it’s totally not fun, especially when they’re not there to do it with me. I even liked my teacher this year, too! But my mom tells me if I don’t finish, I can’t play volleyball with you.”

The unspoken _so I do_ lingers in the air as both boys look fervently at the grass, faces colouring; it is interrupted by the squeal of Shouyou’s sister running towards him.

#

“Hey, Kageyama.”

“What is it, dumbass?”

“What’re you doing in the hospital, anyways? I mean, you always come on the weekends, but you don’t have a room, I don’t think.”

The answer comes surprisingly easily. “I have a room,” Kageyama mumbles, and Shouyou has to strain his ears to hear it, “but I don’t use it much. Don’t want it.”

“Okay, but why are you here?”

“Asthma,” Kageyama replies, even quieter now. “I was playing in a volleyball match, and in the middle of our first set, I had a really bad attack. My teammates call me blue-face now.”

“But wouldn’t you know, you know, what causes your attacks?”

“I had just realized I had it. They don’t know why I didn’t show any symptoms before, but apparently it’s really serious and I have to come every week to get shots and stuff.”

“So you can’t play volleyball anymore?”

Kageyama doesn’t need to shake his head for them both to know what he means.

#

                The day Shouyou is released from the hospital is supposed to be happy, especially since he can walk out with his own legs, but he finds himself shedding more tears than planned for.

                Yamaguchi, whose condition has been consistently worsening, is bed-ridden- Shouyou has to say his goodbyes to him while standing in a hospital room, surrounded by white and the _beep, beep, beep_ of the heart monitor. Yamaguchi can barely talk, but he saves the energy to wrap his arms firmly around Shouyou, who is shaking with tears that he can’t let go.

                Nishinoya bounds to the exit with them, wishing Shouyou well all the way. He waves them off, even running as far after the car as he can before the nurses haul him back inside.

                Even Tsukishima – the ass – says his goodbyes, even if they’re filled with joy at Shouyou’s departure. He knows he doesn’t mean it, anyways.

                But it’s a Wednesday, which means that Kageyama isn’t there to say goodbye. Shouyou wonders on the car if he’ll ever see Kageyama again.

                The thought _probably not_ makes him sag against the faux leather seat in his car, blocking out the excited chatter of his mother as she speeds down the highway.

               Their apartment is close to the hospital, although that’s a granted, considering Shouyou’s condition, and he hates it. They moved when Shouyou had decided he was going to go through with the surgery to have better access to the big city hospital; he’d had to say goodbye to all his friends at school and at the hospital back home. It was worse than saying goodbye here, because at least if something bad happens, he’ll see his friends again.

                Maybe he’ll even see Kageyama.

#

                His parents hire a tutor for him, too scared to have him attend regular school with other kids. What if something bad happens? How will they get him to the hospital quickly enough?

                “It’s only until high school,” his father reassures him. “If nothing happens and your legs develop well enough, there’s no reason for us to hold you back.”

                Three years pass too slowly and without incident, and Shouyou is only too happy when he finally finishes. His parents present him with his school uniform a week before school is due to start, smiles on their faces, and he returns the gesture, holding it up in the mirror to see.

                He’s gotten quite good at volleyball- mainly in the last year as his legs grew stronger. If spiking against the wall and receiving the rebound is worth anything, he thinks he’ll be able to become a sign up for his school team.

                But volleyball always seems like it’s missing something without Kageyama.

#

                Kageyama is always on his mind- has always been on his mind for the last three years. A part of him couldn’t wait to get hurt so that he could visit the hospital and see Kageyama; unfortunately, it seems he’s too strong for that now. Any normal person probably would have moved past after three years, but Shouyou can’t seem to get Kageyama’s scowl off his mind. Or his angry shouting and insults. Or his calloused fingers, rough and warm against Hinata’s own as he showed him the proper positioning.

                “Mom, what does it mean to be in love with someone?”

                His mother starts at the sudden question, and whips around to look at her son. “Why?”

                “I don’t know. Just curious, I guess?”

                She scratches her cheek. “Being in love, eh?”

                Shouyou nods.

                “I suppose it’s different for everyone, but most people would describe it as wanting to be around that person all the time –“

                He _definitely_ wants to be near Kageyama all the time.

                “ – and when they smile at you, you just think it’s the- the cutest thing –“

                Kageyama never smiled, but when Shouyou thinks about it, his scowls might have been pretty endearing, too.

                “– but if you really love them, Shouyou, none of that matters. You can think you hate them, for all that matters, but if they come back to you no matter the distance…that’s what love is.”

#

                “What are you doing here?”

                The other first years giggle at the tall boy and short redhead, who are glaring at each other with an intensity that would burn holes in the ceiling.

                At that moment, Shouyou remembers his mother’s words, and cringes.

                _Shit._

#

                “So, who would have thought I’d see you here, of all places?”

                “What do you mean, dumbass?” Kageyama pants between words, passing another ball to Shouyou. “Your receives still suck, by the way.”

                “-that’s not the point. I mean, we met through volleyball, kinda, and we’re meeting again through volleyball?”

                The lack of response prompts him to turn around, where he finds Kageyama staring at him with a quickly reddening face, his mouth set into a line and fingers fumbling; it gives off a sense of déjà vu, although he doesn’t remember Kageyama’s eyes being this blue. And why is Kageyama leaning forward?

                Except he’s not- rather, he’s sitting where he was, petrified as Shouyou perches forward until their noses touch.

                Their first kiss is positively cathartic- three years of pent up conversations and just _waiting_ finally released.

                “My mom told me,” he whispers, “that if you really love someone, they’ll always come back to you.”

                “I’m here now, dumbass, aren’t I?”

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be for Kagehina week: day 1, but I kinda strayed from the original idea and decided to make this a thing on its own.
> 
> Come cry about gay volleybabies and crappy humour with me at my tumblr:
> 
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/kyoufushi81


End file.
